Independence Hall, third in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at 1 1/8 miles at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23, might run 1 1/4 miles for the first time in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 6.
“We’ve got a lot of options out there,” trainer Michael McCarthy said Thursday. “We’ve put a soft circle around the Santa Anita Handicap.”
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Friday’s eight-race Aqueduct card has been canceled due to a forecast that calls for high winds and windchills in the single-digits, the New York Racing Association announced on Thursday.
The National Weather Service has called for wind gusts in the mid-30-mile-per-hour range with temperatures in the low 20s and wind chills in the single digits on Friday.
It is the second cancellation of the Aqueduct winter meet. The Dec. 17 card was also canceled due to snow. Racing will resume Saturday with a nine-race card that begins at 12:20 p.m.
Joe Ray Peluso, a longtime racing official in Louisiana, died Tuesday in New Orleans.
Peluso, 56, was working as an entry clerk and placing judge at Fair Grounds this winter. He’d worked as a racing official at Fair Grounds for more than 30 years and had about 25 years of experience in similar positions at Louisiana Downs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though trainer Rudy Rodriguez would like to run Eagle Orb in Sunday’s $100,000 Winkfield Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs, owner Esteban Vargas wants to give the New York-bred son of Orb a chance to stretch out in distance. Thus, Eagle Orb will make his next start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes going 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 6.
“If you ask me, I don’t think he wants to go that far, but that’s what the owner wants to do,” Rodriguez said Wednesday. “He said, After this race you do want you want.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though tied for sixth in wins as the Aqueduct winter meet nears the halfway point, trainer Rob Atras has mixed emotions about how things are going.
While the 6 wins from 41 starters are fine, the 11 seconds and 9 thirds are frustrating.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Florent Geroux could not have gotten off to a better start at Oaklawn Park.
He has decided to winter at the track, and won the new meet’s first Kentucky Derby points race on opening day with Caddo River and also accounted for the first week’s final feature with Hidden Scroll.
The horses were among seven winners Geroux rode to close out opening weekend tied atop the standings with Oaklawn’s perennial leading rider Ricardo Santana Jr. The success also has Geroux sitting second in wins in North America in 2021.
A bruised foot will postpone the California debut of Growth Engine, initially scheduled to make his first start for trainer John Sadler and owner Hronis Racing in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Growth Engine worked five furlongs on Jan. 22.
“He worked good, and the next day he had a little bit of a sore foot,” Sadler said Wednesday morning.
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Charlatan, winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds on Dec. 26, worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 on Wednesday, his second workout within a week at Santa Anita.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Charlatan is considered the early favorite for the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 20. Knicks Go, winner of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park last Saturday, also is being considered for the Saudi Cup, which is run at 1 1/8 miles.
